The government stopped you from recovering all of your legal fees for a personal injury case in April 2013. As a result most law firms are now taking at least 25% from your payout and some are asking for upfront fees or making you pay additional fixed charges at the end of the claim.
So with access to justice now at an all time low thanks to the overzealous reforms, where do you stand on being better off by dealing with an insurer directly?
The truth
You are still statistically and logically better off by instructing a law firm – although instructing the right one can make a difference to this. Firstly here are some important facts about dealing directly:
- You will likely under settle your claim
- There can be a conflict of interest because you have no one independent legal representation to advise you
- If any offers are being made to you without medical evidence, which is common when dealing direct, then the offer is based on no actual evidence
- If they got a medical report for you then I’d still be worried because the expert they have instructed may be more favourable to them
Essentially you are in a very, very dangerous position when dealing directly and it is highly likely you will under settle the claim.
How you can still be better off with a law firm?
Statistics have shown that a solicitor can get you four times more – so that in itself is evidence that dealing direct can result in under settling a case. We are aware that insurers will often tell you that they will increase their offer to you when dealing directly to take in to account the fact they are not paying legal fees, but for most cases our fees are fixed at a low amount, and you still can get more with a lawyer.
We can get you proper expert medical evidence to support the full extent of your injuries and suffering to show the true value of the case, and we can then negotiate with the other side for a higher payout.
So turning now to the issue of being charged up to 25% because of the new laws – are you still better off with a lawyer?
Well we statistically can get you four times more and with proper medical evidence the value of the claim is likely to be higher than what they offer you anyway. But here is a very important thing – under the new rules you are entitled to an uplift of your compensation by 10% which is designed to offset the new system of people being charged. So your claim is instantly worth more with a lawyer anyway.
Now many lawyers will take at least 25% and charge you for other fees too but we work in a very different way. Firstly we only deduct up to the maximum of 25% for the Success Fee as we don’t hit you with additional sneaky fees or upfront charges like other firms. With us, the most that will be taken is 25%!
Let the figures speak for themselves…
In real terms this is 15% because your claim is worth more – although we do lower what we deduct for some cases dependant on the injuries, circumstances, and how efficiently you work with us. As you can see a solicitor is sounding better already!
Let’s have a look at some figures – let’s say dealing directly gets you an offer of £2,000, and let’s say that the value of the claim is actually £3,000 (which isn’t even using the statistic of the claim being worth up to four times more as that would be £8,000!)
So, you get £2,000 with the insurers directly; now let’s see what happens to the true value of the claim at £3,000 if you were to come with us.
£3,000 is subject to the uplift with a lawyer meaning you actually get £3,300. We only ever deduct up to a maximum of 25% which equates to £825. That means you receive £2,475. you’re therefore £475 better off with a law firm.
The above is just based on a 25% deduction – remember I said earlier that we don’t always have to take the full amount, so you could end up with way more with a law firm like us! Don’t believe the insurers when they tell you otherwise because there is a lot more to it than just the idea that “a solicitor will charge you” and that’s that.
